Cease and desist

I certainly never claimed that "the west" is the root of all evil. It has been the cradle of the aptly-named "western civilization" since the Greeks, and (cute Gandhi one-liners aside) it's a great thing to have around.

Nor am I claiming that I think the third world would do really well in isolation, or that the west is responsible for their mess, or any of the other strawman arguments that you apparently foisted on me.

What IS true, indisputably so, is that obtaining the same labour and materials from local sources would be much more expensive than obtaining them on the cheap from the third world. What this involves is a small investment in the third world coupled with a huge payoff, since production costs are no longer even in the same magnitude as retail prices. The US benefits enormously from this. The third world may benefit economically, but nowhere near as much.

So please cease and desist trying to paint my portrait with your ridiculous stereotypical colours. I'll listen to reason, I'll listen to imaginative and intuitive argument, I'll listen to logic. But I'm not going to listen to canned arguments.